


Overload

by BreakfastTea



Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, Set between chapters 16 and 17
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:02:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25056652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BreakfastTea/pseuds/BreakfastTea
Summary: After Cloud collapses, the others take him to Aerith's old room. Tifa worries that it's a symptom of a much, much bigger problem.
Comments: 18
Kudos: 110





	Overload

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Fanfic Friday! :D This one goes out to WiggleWiggleWiggleNot ^_^ Hope you enjoy!
> 
> This is totally compliant with the remake with teeny weeny, blink and you'll miss it, hints at the original.

The stench of mako clung to Shinra HQ. No amount of fancy décor could hide it. How did people work here with that smell clinging to everything? Every breath Cloud took pulled the stench into him. It coiled inside him, stirring up things he didn’t want to think about.

Especially after Hojo and his lab of horrors.

That bastard. Cloud _hated_ him. Blinding, helpless anger rose up within him. And Hojo had gotten away from them again. He needed to be stopped. He couldn’t be left to do whatever he wanted. It was too dangerous.

And now, with everything stinking of mako, the fog rose up over him, bringing with it a new, thundering headache.

Why now? Why always at the worst possible time?

Grunting in pain, Cloud staggered forwards, Sephiroth’s voice filling his head, blocking out everything else. He tried to stop walking, tried to keep himself in place, but his legs wouldn’t stop moving. Something pulled him onwards.

Sephiroth’s voice. Calling out to his mother, to…

…Jenova. That name. It cut into Cloud, like a rusty nail through his bare foot.

The memory slammed into him. Jenova. The monster. Suspended in a glass tube.

Her name screamed inside his head. Jenova. Jenova. The urge to speak rose inside him, no matter how hard he tried to push it down, push it away.

“ _Mother.”_

Pain stabbed into his skull. His knees gave out as the world turned from haze to black.

* * *

They watched Cloud fall. Tifa moved faster than anyone, crouching at his side in seconds. She checked his pulse, found it thready, checked his breathing, found it shallow but steady. Fever pulsed through him. Her own heart threatening to break out of her chest, she desperately tried to wake him. “Cloud. Cloud! Wake up!”

He didn’t even stir.

“What the hell’s wrong with him?” Barret demanded.

“I don’t know,” Tifa said, hearing the panic in her voice. She took a deep breath. Losing it wouldn’t help anyone right now. “We need to find somewhere to lie low until he’s alright.”

“There are no safe havens in a place like this,” Red said.

“I can think of somewhere,” Aerith said. “Bring him. I’ll show you the way.”

Barret grabbed Cloud. He passed his weapon to Tifa. The sword was huge and awkward, but she didn’t complain. Aerith led them to a small room, the wall covered in bright, lively artwork. Tifa glanced at Aerith, seeing her smile as her hand ran over the pictures. Tifa understood what it meant to smile both in joy and in pain at the same time.

“Are you okay?” Tifa asked, leaning Cloud’s sword against the wall.

“Mmm.” Aerith nodded. “I haven’t been here in a very long time.”

Barret placed Cloud on the bed. “You lived here?”

“With my mother,” Aerith said. “My birth mother, I mean. We did what we could to brighten the place up.”

“You did a good job,” Barret said, moving around to look at the books. “Always wanted to do something like this for Marlene, but I ain’t got much in the way of artistic skill.”

“When this is over, maybe we can do something together,” Aerith said.

“Marlene would love that,” Barret said. “She’s real taken with you.”

Tifa returned to Cloud’s side, checking him once again. He seemed to be resting easier now, his pulse and breathing slower. He still seemed too warm for her liking, but nothing dangerous. He was out cold; the sound of the others hadn’t woken him. She’d seen him snap awake in a heartbeat. For him to be out like this…

Something was wrong, terribly wrong.

Why wouldn’t he just tell her?

There was more to his headaches. More to his breaks from reality. He wouldn’t talk about the time between leaving Nibelheim and reappearing in Midgar’s Sector Seven. He said he’d left SOLDIER and Shinra, but he never spoke about what he’d experienced. Sometimes, his brusqueness suggested pain, that whatever had happened was too much to talk about. Other times, the vacancy in his eyes told her something else. Something worse.

He couldn’t talk about it, because he didn’t remember. And that left her feeling sick. Left her breathless. Because that was a problem she could not solve.

“What did Shinra do to you?” she asked.

He didn’t have an answer. He slept on.

They’d done more than infuse him with mako. She’d seen this hellhole, and other pits Shinra created. She’d seen their experiments, what they did to people, the monsters they created. What if this was the start of it for Cloud? What if all his strength would fade away, degrade, until Cloud was just another monster?

“Tifa?” Red’s voice cut through her spiralling thoughts.

She looked to him. “Yes?”

“I’m sure Cloud will be alright,” Red said.

“Red’s right,” Barret said, looking up from the bookshelf. “The merc’s a pain in the ass sometimes, but he’s strong. Probably just pushed himself too hard. Heh, guess SOLDIERs are still human after all.” He sat down on a small sofa. “We could all use a break. Might as well take the opportunity to get some rest.”

Tifa sat on a pile of crates at Cloud’s bedside. Red settled himself on the floor, head resting on his front paws. Aerith turned back to her artwork.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Aerith?” Tifa asked.

“I am, really,” Aerith said. “It’s just strange to be back here. Seeing things I remember, things I’ve forgotten.” She moved around. “It’s very nostalgic. I haven’t felt this close to my mother in a long time.” The pained smile reappeared. “I wish it didn’t have to be a place like this that brings me back to her.”

Leaving Aerith to her memories, Tifa turned to Barret. He already had his nose in a book. She smiled. She’d never met such an avid scholar. The bookshelves back at the bar were full of Marlene’s stories and Barret’s vast planetology collection. Actually, the shelves were kept in place by planetology books. To think, all that careful collated knowledge, just gone now. She hadn’t stopped to think about it until now.

Because stopping meant thinking. Tifa had taken care not to stop and think much lately if she could help it. The weight of it felt like the plate falling on her head. Except what could she do right now? Until Cloud was ready to go, all she could do was wait and think.

A few quiet hours slipped by. Tifa dozed, but never for very long. Cloud stirred, coming around slower than usual. When he came fully to, he promised he was fine. Tifa felt some of the tension drain out of her. He stood up and retrieved his sword.

“You gonna tell us what that was all about?” Barret asked, his voice gentler than Tifa expected.

“It was nothing,” Cloud said.

“People don’t pass out over nothing,” Barret said.

Cloud’s expression closed down. He looked troubled. If Tifa was honest, he looked afraid.

“We’re still with you, after everything. Can’t you trust us yet?” Barret demanded, still with less heat than usual.

“I – ” Cloud’s voice faded.

Tifa wanted Barret to stop. If he pushed too hard, Cloud might leave.

Worse, he might break.

To her amazement, Cloud sighed and spoke. “I don’t know. It was a memory. From…” His hand drifted to his head. “I’m not sure. Back from sometime when I was in SOLDIER. It was Sephiroth. And Jenova.” He winced. “It’s muddled.”

“Shinra,” Barret said knowingly. “Bet they messed with your head in some kinda experiment. That’s what SOLDIERs are, right? Shinra experiments, every one of you. Am I right?”

“Maybe,” Cloud said. His hand dropped back to his side.

Tifa remembered President Shinra’s words about SOLDIER degradation. Maybe Cloud’s body and mind were paying the price for the power he wielded. The thought that she might lose him so soon after finding him…

No. That wouldn’t happen. Not to Cloud.

“We’ve seen what Shinra do in the name of science,” Red said. “It tracks that they may have done something to you, something you can’t recall.”

“Yeah,” Cloud said. Tifa noticed the relief in his voice. “That’s gotta be what they did.”

Tifa wanted to believe it. It fit. It was a nice, easy theory.

She had to ignore her inner voice telling her it wasn’t right, there was something else, something stranger.

“Tifa?”

Cloud’s voice pulled her back.

“You okay?” he asked.

She forced a smile. “I’m fine. And I’m glad you’re okay too.”

He really was okay, wasn’t he?

Tifa knew he wouldn’t give her a straight answer. Maybe he couldn’t. Maybe he thought he was fine, that living like this, was okay.

She laughed inwardly. Look at her. Look at what she called ‘okay’. Her life was chaos, controlled only by how hard she could punch something. She was in no place to judge Cloud’s version of ‘okay’.

Would her life ever be normal again? Was this really what she’d expected when she’d signed up to join Avalanche? Probably not, because just like now, she’d never really stopped to consider the ultimate consequences. She just went along with whatever came her way.

It didn’t matter. She didn’t care. This was her life, and as crazy and out of control as it all was right now, at least she wasn’t alone. Cloud was here. And whatever happened, she wasn’t going to leave him. She would be here for him. And one day, hopefully, he would open up to her.

If he did that, maybe her constant, gut-churning fear would finally go away.

“We should keep going,” Cloud said.

Tifa couldn’t argue. They couldn’t stay here. It was a miracle Shinra hadn’t come for them already. Hojo had to know they were here.

Maybe he was just playing games.

How she hated that man. And this place. And all of Shinra.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Cloud gave her a nod. Then, he turned to Aerith, and their journey resumed.

Barret’s hand closed around Tifa’s shoulder. “We’ll keep an eye on him,” he said, keeping his voice low. “We need him as much as he needs us.”

Tifa reached up, giving Barret’s hand a squeeze.

“Whatever Shinra did to him, we won’t let them get away with it. They’re gonna pay for every abuse, every experiment, every life they ruined.”

Tifa watched Cloud. Remembered the boy from Nibelheim. Had Shinra ruined his life or given him everything he’d ever wanted?

She had the feeling only time would tell.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! 
> 
> Heading back over to FFXV for the remaining weeks of Fanfic Friday. 
> 
> Until next week, y'all can find me on [Tumblr ](https://breakfastteatime.tumblr.com/):D


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